Rain won't break drought, fire marshal says

Published 7:00 pm, Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Alejandro Sanchez, 2, holds a towel over his head to keep dry
from the rain Wednesday at the Plantersville Town Hall
Building.

Alejandro Sanchez, 2, holds a towel over his head to keep dry from the rain Wednesday at the Plantersville Town Hall Building.

Rain won't break drought, fire marshal says

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Rainstorms swept across Montgomery County Wednesday, giving firefighters and citizens some much-needed relief.

Storms came down from Central Texas late Tuesday night, according to the National Weather Service, and hit College Station and Brenham around 4 a.m. before settling on the Houston area between 6 and 7 a.m. Based on radar estimates, the NWS said Montgomery County areas received an average of 1.19 inches of rain, with Willis receiving the most rain at 2 inches, and Splendora receiving the least at 0.3 inches.

The Houston area has not received more than an inch of rain since January, according to the NWS, and the last significant rainfall May 12 yielded 0.23 inches.

The storms Wednesday lasted until the late afternoon, and rain has now moved east into Louisiana, offshore into the Gulf of Mexico and near the Corpus Christi area. The chances of rain for today in the Houston area are 20-30 percent.

Montgomery County Fire Marshal Jimmy Williams said that while an inch of rain won’t end drought conditions or lift the county’s burn ban, any rain is a relief for area fire departments.

“We need a good 10 inches to break the drought, since we are 20 inches below the rainfall that we should be at right now,” Williams said. “With the rain, the fire danger has dropped today, and it gives firefighters a chance to rest and do maintenance on their equipment.”

Williams said the rain has helped bring a fire that started Sunday in Grimes County under control, and the NWS said radar estimates show Navasota, Brenham, College Station and Madisonville received some of the heaviest rainfall Wednesday, and Grimes County’s estimate was between 2.5 and 3 inches.

“It will help us temporarily, but it’s a very premature situation,” Williams said. “The fireworks restrictions will still be in place because we are two weeks away from July 4, and 1 inch of rain can evaporate in five days, leaving us in the same situation.”

While the rain was good for the ground, accident reports in Montgomery County show the rain wasn’t good for the roads.

The North Star Traffic Control system said three accidents had occurred in The Woodlands area before noon Wednesday, and the Conroe Police Department dispatch had 15 motor-vehicle accident calls. The Needham, Woodlands and Magnolia fire departments said they all responded to at least three auto accidents, although none of them major.

Public Information Officer Stuart Norman, of the Needham Fire Department, said most of the accidents his department responded to were on Interstate 45 or feeder roads.

“This is the first rain we’ve seen in awhile, so there’s definitely slicker roads out there,” Norman said. “There’s a thin layer of oil on the roads, and people need to be careful.”